How Do You Talk To Atheists About God?

Jessica Griggs

By Jessica Griggs

Many of us struggle with how to talk to friends and family members about our faith. All too often, we think we need to have an answer for every question, or we worry about the exact right phrasing to convince them that God exists. But the more of these conversations you encounter, the more you begin to understand that you can win an argument, and still lose a soul. We’ve asked the members of eBible.com to give us some tips and advice on how they approach conversations with atheists. To add your voice to this conversation, sign up for a free eBible account today!

Pray About It

“My advice is to earnestly pray for this atheist and to demonstrate the love of Christ to him in any and every way that is appropriate and possible.”

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. – John 6:44

“The Spirit of God can move on the hardest of hearts, and part of our role is to pray for such people.”

Demonstrate The Love Of Christ

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

“It is [God’s] love that has the power to change hearts. Debate and discussion ultimately only stirs brain cells, but love changes hearts. We must pray for and love our atheists friends with Christ-like love, for this is the most powerful evidence of God anyone will ever see.”

“Jesus told his disciples in John 13:35 that the most powerful evidence of God in us is his love… ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ This is especially true in dealing with atheists.”

Come Prepared… To Listen

“It is good to be well-prepared to answer questions and to be able to answer as many as possible, but believing in God requires faith; therefore, some questions will always remain without definite answers.”

“In my experience talking to atheists, I have found that they are frequently very well educated and often come from Christian backgrounds. Many having been believers previously. They often know the bible more thoroughly than ma lot of Christians and have very reasonable questions.”

“It is important to take their questions seriously, understanding that our common enemy has deceived the human race for so long, we all are touched in some way by doubt, having difficulty reconciling biblical accounts with what we think we know about history, science, morality and fairness. In the final analysis however, God reigns supreme and his love endures forever.”

“It is easy to get caught up in endless debates about evolution/creation. Atheists’ minds are usually made up regarding this, and any debate only ends in driving us father apart. When we see this happening we must disengage and reorient the conversation. We must understand their confusion and wrestle with their doubts and questions in the same way many of us have wrestled with our own doubts. We must be genuine and real, most of all loving.”

Don’t Give Up Hope

It is important to remember that it is not our responsibility to convince someone of God’s existence, or to get them “saved.” We are vessels to be used by God, we are proclaimers of the Gospel, and it should be our joyous burden to speak love and truth into the lives of everyone we meet. We are called to pray on behalf of the lost people of this world, and it is good and healthy to be heart broken for them, but do not despair. Our God is a righteous God.